


Stomach Flu

by Oracle507



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Fluff, Gen, Kinda, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, Some angst, stomach flu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:09:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27474796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oracle507/pseuds/Oracle507
Summary: Thomas gets sick when the deadline for a long awaited video is coming up. Logan, Roman, and Patton attempt to have him relax, but his Anxiety gets to him and pushes him to work harder than he should.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859785
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Stomach Flu

**Author's Note:**

> TW: None, somehow. This never happens. Weird. Unless a vague mention of throwing up counts, which it might for some people. Other than that, this story is pretty mild.  
> The prompt for this one shot was "Stomach Flu". The story takes place soon after Virgil was accepted but before Deceit was introduced.

Roman had been pumped for today the previous night. A deadline for a new video was coming up and that meant this should be his time to shine. At least, that would have been the case if Thomas hadn’t woken up with a stomach ache and a pounding headache.

Honestly, he should have seen this coming (and not just because Thomas had been feeling off the last few days). Every single time he’s ready to take the reins and make Thomas the star he was always meant to be, something gets in the way. There wasn’t even anything to get mad at this time. Unless he hunted down the person that gave Thomas whatever illness this was, that is. ‘Stupid viruses always ruining my fun.’

While none of the sides ever felt the full extent of Thomas’s injuries and illnesses, they were constantly, unavoidably aware of them. In this case, Roman had to do his best to ignore the warm sensation of malaise in his stomach and head as he made his way to the kitchen. Not that he actually planned on eating, that was just where he had the best chance of running into the other sides.

“Good morning!” Patton said from their dining table. The undrunken cup of hot chocolate in front of him was the only sign he felt nearly as bad as Roman did. “I guess Thomas isn’t doing so good.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” He sat down across from Patton and laid his head on the table. “Ugh, I hate this! I never get to do anything when Thomas is sick. It’s always ‘Thomas should take his mind off work for now in order to recover as quickly as possible.’” Roman did his best Logan impression.

“Yes. That is because that is simply the best way of addressing these situations.” Logan joined them at the table, carrying the large notebook he uses for Thomas’s schedule. “I apologize for bringing my work to the table, but I must adjust the schedule as soon as possible so that Thomas will not need to worry about this and can properly rest.”

“Speaking of worrying, where’s our little worrywart?”

“Are you referring to Virgil? I don’t know why you would call him little since we are all the same size.”

“Nope!” Roman leaned back to put his foot on the table. “My shoes have small heels. I beat all of you.”

“First, that is very unsanitary. Behavior like that is likely how Thomas got sick in the first place. Second, I don’t know where Virgil is. It is far from unusual for him to be the last to join us.”

“True, but I want to make sure he isn’t bugging Thomas right now. He needs rest so he can get better and I won’t be bored anymore.”

“I mean,” Patton said, “I know Thomas isn’t feeling good and that’s bad, but I kinda like it when he gets sick. We get to relax, eat comfort food, and watch Disney movies.”

“That would be great, but Thomas always falls asleep in the middle of the movie. How am I supposed to enjoy Moana if I can’t even get to “I am Moana”? How?”

“Aw, Roman, it’s okay! We both know that the journey is more important than the destination.”

“Not if the journey is that KakaMora Attack scene and the destination is  _ literal perfection. _ ”

“What are we arguing about?”

Roman turned in his seat to see Virgil leaning against the doorway. His pale skin and awful posture looked even more pale and awful than usual. “What happened to you?”

“Why isn’t Thomas working on his video?” he asked as he took his usual seat next to Patton. ‘And he’s deflecting. Typical…’

“As you know, he is not feeling well,” Logan said. “Our protocol for these situations is Thomas puts all of his unnecessary duties on hold and rests until he is well enough to perform them.”

“And you consider posting a video he has been promising his fans for weeks now on time is not necessary?”

“If it will not damage his health or livelihood to a major extent, then yes, it is unnecessary.”

Virgil pulled his hood up and slumped further in his chair. “And you think this won’t do that?”

“It’ll be alright, kiddo.” Patton rubbed his arm. “Thomas needs a break anyway.” Virgil rolled his eyes before blinking away.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

Roman sunk out and popped up where Thomas had been resting in his room. “You need to get up and work on your video,” Virgil said.

Thomas sighed and forced himself to sit up. “I knew you’d show up…”

Roman hesitated. On one hand, this was exactly what he wanted. This was his time to take control and create to his heart’s content. On the other hand, there was no way he could actually reach Thomas’s full… him potential in this state. Logan was right, they need to let him rest. “We both know you need your beauty sleep. Don’t listen to this Evil Queen.”

“You are aware it was the Evil Queen that put that spell on Aurora in the first place, right?”

Roman ignored him. “This Prince Charming will wake you when it’s our time to… kill a dragon and get married. That metaphor didn’t really work. As you can see, I’m not at my best right now. Your fans would much rather have a late video than a bad video.”

“Thank you, Roman,” Thomas said. “I was going to call Joan later and ask them to help. I’ll let the fans know then. They’ll understand.”

“No, they won’t,” Virgil said.

“They always do, Virge. We both know that.”

“Sure, they say they understand and want you to take care of yourself, but is that actually what they think?”

“... Yes?”

“No! They only say that because that’s what you do. No one wants to say they’re annoyed about your inconsistent uploads, but they all are. Who wouldn’t be? They subscribe to you for content, not an endless stream of delays and empty promises.”

Thomas let out a breath before pulling his legs over the side of the bed. Roman moved to stand in front of him. “Thomas, no.”

He stood up, fazing through Roman and walking to the door. “Virgil’s right, I can’t keep doing this to them.”

Roman glared at Virgil. “Why are you upset?” Virgil asked. “I thought you were bored.”

“Yeah, but… Whatever.” He sank down to join Thomas. Evidently, he had work to do.

* * *

Things went well at first. Thomas was able to finish editing one total minute of the video over the course of two hours, a pace slower than normal but that was to be expected. Then Thomas threw up all over his living room floor.

Roman knew the other sides must have started fighting but wanted no part in any of that. He decided to stay with Thomas until Joan showed up. “We did good today, Thomas. We’ll be able to finish this amazing masterpiece once you’re feeling better.”

“But what if Virgil is right? I can’t let the fans down again.”

Roman sighed. “We both know how loyal your fans are. They won’t want you to push yourself. You’re only saying that because Virgil’s freaking out. Do you want me to go tell him to shut up?”

“No, we aren’t doing that anymore. Virgil is one of you and shouldn’t be shut down.”

“Sure, but he just tried to make you work though the stomach flu. That sounds like a pretty good reason to tell him to-” Thomas glared at him. “Fine, fine. I’ll ask him nicely to stop making you feel miserable when you already feel like your stomach is trying to cave in on itself.”

He sunk down and reappeared in the sides’ living room. “Thomas can’t afford to just slack off like this,” Virgil said. He was standing in front of Logan and Patton who were both sitting on the couch. “The world is mean and people won’t always be here to help him. He’s gotta learn to take care of himself.”

“I agree that there are many unfortunate people out there who do not have a stable support system available to them,” Logan said, “but Thomas is not one of them. Why should Thomas let that go to waste instead of using it to better his own well being.”

“But-”

“Thomas already decided to listen to Logan, Virge,” Roman said. “All you’re doing right now is making him feel guilty. If you need to sulk, go do it in your room. Don’t bring Thomas down with you.”

“Roman!” Patton pouted at him.

“Fine, whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when everything goes wrong.” Virgil stormed off.

Patton tried to go after him when Logan grabbed his arm. “There is little use talking to him now.”

“That was really mean, Roman. I know he’s in the wrong here, but that’s no way to go about correcting him. We were trying to get him to understand and you just told him to go away. That’s not how things are supposed to go anymore.”

“Thomas and I just wasted two hours working on the video. We’re probably gonna have to re-edit it later because Thomas was too sick to pay attention. Defend him all you want, but he’s in the wrong here and I’m not about to baby him like you do.”

“I agree that Virgil acted against Thomas’s best interest today, but that was… harsh,” Logan said.

“What was harsh was him telling Thomas he can’t rely on people and ask for help when he needs it.  _ That’s  _ harsh.”

Patton sunk down more into the couch. “Well, sure, that wasn’t good, but I don’t think we had to yell at him. He looked pretty upset this morning. I think he’s just worried about Thomas. We should have tried to calm him down instead of getting mad.”

Roman remembered the way he looked when he first saw Virgil this morning. ‘Did he sleep at all last night?’ He sighed. “Do you want me to go check on him?”

“No, not right now. He probably wants to be alone. I just wish we could’ve talked to him better, but he just got all defensive.I don’t think he’s really used to us trying to work with him and help him yet. It’ll take him a while to start relying on us.”

‘Right, of course. How did I not think of that?’ Virgil had no one to rely on but the dark sides for so long, and there was no way they were a good support system for him. Even after he joined the main sides, they blew him off most of the time. His job was to identify dangers in Thomas’s life and warn him of them. Of course Virgil would see relying on others and trusting people to forgive you as dangerous.

Roman took off towards Virgil’s room.

“Wait, what are you-”

He didn’t wait to hear the end of Logan’s sentence. He found Virgil’s door and knocked rapidly.

Virgil opened the door without warning, resulting in Roman’s knuckles hitting the air a few times before his arm fell back to his side. “What do you want?”

“I didn’t mean to be mean before. Well, I did, but I shouldn’t have. You were just doing your job. You were doing it bad and overreacting, but still. Sorry.”

Virgil blushed and looked away. “No need. I made things worse today. I know I kinda took over and didn’t listen to anyone. I’m just tired. Don’t worry about it. I’ll try not to bug Thomas again.”

He tried to close the door but Roman stuck his foot out in time. “Wait. Why are you tired?”

“I… I could feel Thomas starting to get sick before. There’s always so much to worry about when that happens. How will his fans react? Who’s gonna take care of him if he gets too sick to take care of himself? What amount of pain is normal before he should go to the hospital? It’s… a lot.”

“Yeah, which is why you should talk to us instead of trying to figure all that out yourself. Come talk to us next time.”

“I’ll try.” He yawned.

“You should probably get some sleep.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow. “You really think me, anxiety, trying to sleep when I’m anxious is gonna go well?”

“In that case, come out and watch a movie with us. I’m in the mood to watch Moana. Don’t worry, I won’t get upset if you fall asleep during the KakaMora fight.”

“What? Why would you-? Whatever. Sure, that sounds… great, actually. Logan and Patton aren’t mad at me, are they?”

“Logan’s fine and I don’t think it’s possible for Patton to get mad at you.” Roman linked arms with him. “Come on. We Know the Way to the living room where we can see How Far You’ll Go into the movie before passing out.” Virgil groaned and looked ready to say something before Roman put a finger on his lips. “I know what you’re gonna say, and You’re Welcome.” Virgil rolled his eyes but didn’t resist as Roman pulled him down the hallway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm always looking to improve, so feel free to leave your criticisms/questions in the comments or message me on my Tumblr. Link to that: https://nerdywriterhaven.tumblr.com/  
> Yep, I'm finally back after... 3 months. I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened. Well, I know what happened, but I really didn't mean to not post for so long. I got wrapped up telling myself I can't only write for one fandom, which resulted in my trying to force myself to write something I have no interest in writing. Instead of giving in and writing something else, my brain decided to lose all interest in writing.  
> I think a large part of the issue I had was, while I love writing for Sanders Sides, the story itself outside of AUs is very restricting. There's no real villains unless you want to make one of the sides unsympathetic, there's only one possible setting, and all of the characters are cis gay white men. Not a lot of room for diversity. That's why I'm interested in creating another AU series for my Bad Things Happen Bingo prompts. That's actually what got me excited to write again (that and my birthday was yesterday and for some reason that made my brain really want to write). Since I've been really into DnD podcasts recently, I want to do an AU in a DnD inspired world. I wanted to write a normal oneshot first before doing any of that both because I want more time to develop backstories for the characters (Roman and Remus's backstory is a little bit too similar to their backstory in my soulmate AU right now) and because I want people's inputs on the races and classes I've picked for the sides. Logan is a genderfluid (they/them and she/her) Half-Elf Wizard who in this AU is named Lorian. Patton is a male (he/him) Firbolg Cleric (I swear I came to those conclusions about Patton separately. I wasn't just thinking about Caduceus from Critical Role). Virgil is a female (she/her) Aasimar Paladin who in this AU is named Vira. Janus is a female (she/her) Changeling Ranger who in this AU is called Jan. Roman and Remus are both male (he/him) Tieflings. Roman is a Bard and Remus is a Sourcerer.


End file.
